Christina Tatnell recently had taken her first plane ride, but that wasn’t the reason she was shaking.

She was backstage before her first professional fight – her first fight of any kind, actually. The woman who grew up as a sheltered girl in Australia was about to enter the pro stage, and the nerves were taking over in part because she was facing one of the people who inspired her to become a fighter at all.

On that night in October 2012, she was going through a change.

“(I remember) being in awe of the cameras and the noise of the one thousand plus people in attendance like it was yesterday,” Tatnell told MMAjunkie.

Now, her tomorrows are looking brighter. After losing that debut, Tatnell has won four straight fights and is looking for her next opportunity, particularly a chance to fight in the United States.

Her fighting career is part of an overall emergence from a shell that the once-shy and once-reserved Tatnell built around herself while growing up. Bullying she experienced in school because of a pale complexion and her already shy countenance only drove her to put up more emotional walls.

At its deepest, she battled anxiety and anorexia, she said. But fighting those battles was setting her up for another part of her life, the one in which she would find her voice. She’s gaining confidence with her 4-1 record, most recently winning in February.

Now she’s hoping to continue that momentum of life-changing events with even bigger opportunities in the MMA world.

“A couple years ago, I could never imagine moving to the other side of the Australia, away from all my family, to pursue my goal to making it to the United States as a prize fighter,” she wrote. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself.”

Shy youth

Tatnell was raised in Perth, Australia, a country town in the island state of Tasmania. The way she describes it, it wasn’t the most exciting place to be.

“Nothing interesting happens and the smart people leave as soon as they possibly can,” she wrote. “Until just last year, I had never even seen a skyscraper in person, nor had I ever flown in an airplane. I come from a somewhat sheltered upbringing far removed from the bright lights and energy of MMA events.”

She’s the middle child of three sisters, and even though it wasn’t a strict household, there were rules that Tatnell later ended up breaking. For one thing, she was told tattoos were not allowed – but she’s now sponsored by a tattoo company and has plans to get a full sleeve done soon. That will augment multiple piercings, another part of her appearance her mother would’ve almost certainly abhorred.

But for most of her youth, Tatnell was a shy girl, which increased with the way she was treated in school. She enjoyed being outside, camping and being alongside a local river, but she also had the stress caused by her troubles at school.

That led to anxiety and eating issues. Her weight dropped significantly.

“That was a very emotionally and physically draining battle and only just recently, since I started fighting, have I really started eating,” she wrote. “I’m now a long way away from where I was.”

It just took an introduction to MMA to help her rebound.

Only a pro

Tatnell was first introduced to MMA in 2011, when she attended a show at which the husband-and-wife pairing of Dan and Bec Hyatt were fighting. They were both from an area near where she grew up, so she was interested.

Then she watched the show, and it changed her life.

“I was just blown away by the energy in the venue and about how intriguing the fighters were personality wise,” she wrote.

So she wanted to start training. Many of her friends and her family thought she was joking. She soon found a gym nearby where she could start the basics, beginning with jiujitsu and moving on to striking.

About six months into her training, she saw social media chatter about Bec Hyatt losing an opponent because of travel issues. Soon, Dan Hyatt was calling her to see if she would be interested in filling the spot on the card with about one day’s notice.

She lost that debut by knockout 37 seconds into the fight (and, in many ways, she wishes she could get another shot at that opponent because of the training she has gained), but the experience helped launch her to more fights and more passion.

She has won four consecutive fights, all in the Valor Fight promotion. She also has started training under Dan Hyatt, whose career helped motivate her to start fighting.

Because of that success and improvement, she’s hoping to take a bigger step soon and continue blossoming after a shy childhood.

“I feel like a completely different fighter and I have nothing else but confidence when entering the cage,” she wrote. “I might only be 20 years old, but three of the four fighters I have beaten are credible, legitimate names in the Australian women’s MMA scene.”

Catching up

Last week, Justin Martin told us about how a New Year’s resolution in 2008 helped turn the Louisiana farmboy into a fighter. Martin had his undefeated 6-0 start to his career stopped last weekend when he dropped a Xtreme Fighting Championships bout against Thanh Le to suffer his first loss.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.